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Random alley Labor News:
By LINDSEY FENNER Union Workers at Abbott and Phillips Eye Institute Hold Strike Vote: After Allina Hospitals refused a to extend an expiring contract for union workers, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare workers in negotiations at Allina/Abbott Northwestern Hospital/Phillips Eye Institute voted at the end of March to decide whether to authorize an Unfair Labor Practices Strike against Allina. Results of the strike authorization vote were too late for print. According to the union, Allina has declined to negotiate health and safety issues. SEIU-represented workers at Abbott went on a two-day Strike last October over safety and COVID-pay. SEIU workers at Children”™s Hospital are in separate contract negotiations, where key issues are pay and safe staffing levels. Teamsters Locked Out at Marathon Refinery: The labor movement in MN is asking everyone to avoid buying gas at Marathon and Speedway gas stations in solidarity with locked out [...]
“Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”
SOMETHING I SAID By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes There are times you have to question how seriously black folk take our own history. Two examples are the films currently arching eyebrows, turning heads and topping just about everyone”™s must-see list, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” and 2012”™s “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” (LionsgateDVD). When you consider what Fred Hampton, chair of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Illinois Chapter and iconic activist Angela Davis went through so the bourgeoisie could blithely change its tune from “We Will Overcome” to “I have overcome” it truly is saddening. The plain facts are that even in the 60”™s, while even middle class blacks rallied around Martin Luther King”™s social protest, freedom fighters like Hampton, Davis and Malcolm X weren”™t socially acceptable. They were too angry for assimilationists. Today, scores [...]
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetary
By Sue Hunter Weir 186th in a Series Annie Erwin: She Loved Not Wisely Annie Erwin is one of the more intriguing stories in the cemetery although it”™s hard to judge how much of it is true. The source of much of the information about her was an unnamed man who claimed to have been told about Annie by her former lover. This unnamed man, in turn, shared that story with the press. His third-hand account was picked up by the Chicago Tribune on October 21, 1866, two weeks after Annie died. Pollinator alert! Spring is just around the corner. Watch for the cemetery”™sannual opening (weather permitting) around April 15th. Themarker in the forefront of the photo belongs to Magnus Norquist (1822-1901) and his wife Kiasa (1822-1910).PHOTO BY: TIM MCCALL According to Annie”™s lover she was born in England where her family had become members of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Annie appeared to be losing faith in her religion so her [...]
